textile

American  

[teks-tahyl, -til] / ˈtɛks taɪl, -tɪl /

noun

• textiles
  plural

1. any cloth or goods produced by weaving, knitting, or felting.

2. a material, as a fiber or yarn, used in or suitable for weaving.

   Glass can be used as a textile.

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adjective

1. woven or capable of being woven.

   textile fabrics.

2. of or relating to weaving.

3. of or relating to textiles or the production of textiles.

   the textile industry.

textile British  

/ ˈtɛkstaɪl /

noun

1. any fabric or cloth, esp woven

2. raw material suitable to be made into cloth; fibre or yarn

3. a non-nudist, as described by nudists; one who wears clothes

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adjective

1. of or relating to fabrics or the making of fabrics

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• textiles
  plural

Etymology

Origin of textile

1520–30; < Latin textilis woven, textile (noun use of neuter) woven fabric, equivalent to text ( us ), past participle of texere to weave + -ilis, -ile -ile

Explanation

A textile is something made by knitting, weaving, or crocheting fibers together. A textile is a cloth. You’re probably wearing a textile right now! Textile comes from the Latin word, textilis for "woven fabric” and that's exactly what it is. If you’re in the textile business, you’re dealing with the stuff that gets turned into clothes, flags, dishrags, or anything else made of cloth. If you knit a scarf, you create a hand-made textile — although the word is more often used in art or industry, as in textile design or textile imports.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

textile textiles

But she had always managed to land on her feet, surviving the precipitous decline of the textile industry during the early and mid-2000s when she was laid off from Springs Industries after 29 years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

The material was used to make ceremonial blankets, giving these dogs a role centered on textile production rather than hunting or transportation.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 10, 2026

Three city guides then told the story of Glasgow, using staging inspired by Scotland's pioneering textile industry and the River Clyde's shipbuilding heritage.

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

Eurenco is overseeing a pilot project in Sweden that seeks to turn textile waste into nitrocellulose.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

It was whispered in one browbeaten textile union that the mute was an organizer for the C.I.O.

From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers

They sold gold, ivory and ultimately enslaved Africans, often those captured in local conflicts, in exchange for the manufactured goods brought mainly by the British and Dutch, including textiles, alcohol and guns.

From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026

Hengli eventually expanded into other textiles, including polyester, which required petroleum-based raw materials such as purified terephthalic acid that China imported from abroad.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Recycling textiles can be particularly tricky because a lot of clothing is made from a blend of materials from polyester—which is derived from oil—to cotton, rayon and nylon.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

In her bedroom, she mixes floral textiles and modern art with a quirky stepstool shaped like an ear of corn.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2026

They lived in the same high-rise where they’d raised Barack, in a small apartment decorated with Indonesian textiles that Ann had sent home over the years.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Related Words

• cloth
• fiber
• goods
• yarn